Local unemployment rate at all-time high

Unemployment in the Capital Region climbed to 8.4 percent of the workforce in January, the highest figure for any month since figures were collected starting in 1990. The rate was 8.2 percent a year ago, and 7.5 percent in December.

The report is in marked contrast to one on job numbers issued last Thursday. That showed the Capital Region with a net gain of 4,000 jobs in the year to January.

Despite the increase in the unemployment rate, the Capital Region had one of the lower rates among metropolitan areas statewide. In Elmira, 10.5 percent of the workforce was unemployed and looking for work, while the jobless rate was 10.3 percent in Glens Falls, 10.2 percent in both Binghamton and Utica Rome, 9.9 percent in Kingston, 9.8 percent in Syracuse, 9.6 percent in Buffalo, and 8.7 percent in Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown.

State labor markets analyst James Ross cautioned that the unemployment rate was “not as good as the job count” in describing the actual health of the job market. He pointed out that private sector jobs for 2012 were at a record high, and that the number of private jobs in the Capital Region in January also was an all-time record.

The two indicators, he said, “sort of go counter to each other. I’m very confident of the job numbers right now. The totals are good.”